Oh! I’m having a Careergasm!

Sarah Vermunt’s refreshing essays about how to find satisfying work helped me get honest about what I wanted from my next job

Last year I was on the hunt for a perfect job for me. After a savvy friend mentioned Sarah Vermunt’s book Careergasm as a source for career wisdom, I sought it

When I first picked it up, I drooled over the colours, fonts, and graphic elements of this book. The size, the weight, the textures of the paperback cover and interior paper… Everything about it was lust-worthy!

Refreshingly short essays

The physical design was what initially drew me to Careergasm That’s a legit reason to buy a book, right? But when I got friendly between the pages with Vermunt’s no-nonsense, positive, thoughtful advice, my relationship with the book started to go deeper.

I love how it can be read in bits and bites, with each chapter as an essay that could stand on its own.

Some essays are quite personal. In one, The Burnout Club, Vermunt explores the connection between the personal and the professional when she describes how a four-year bout of ill health led her to realize she hadn’t been listening to what body had been trying to tell her about stress at work.

“It’s very possible that your body knows something that you just don’t want to acknowledge,” writes Vermunt. “The body doesn’t do denial. Whatever personal insight you glean from your body, resist the urge to push it back down.”

Vermunt’s book is totally in tune with my yoga-influenced, body-centric, empowered and in-harmony way of viewing my work in the world.

At the same time, Vermunt’s got a brassy badass tinge in her voice, and I know I’m attracted to her writing becasue I could use a bit more of that quality in myself.

But really, what Vermunt is saying is not that readers should be more like her. No. She’s saying: Be more like who you really are—and if you’ve got even a tiny bit of badass in there, stoke it!

Actually, my optimism was totally stoked by Vermunt’s voice and can-do attitude. Reading her book is like downing a glass of icy lemonade on a hot day: Bracing, invigorating and immediately satisfying. It just feels so good.

Author is a multi-media maven

But the best part of this book is how the final page doesn’t have to be the end of the relationship with Vermunt. Her website, her video courses, her social media feed and her one-on-one coaching are all useful ways to keep cultivating a career boost.

I was so drawn in I became Sarah’s client in her Career Shift coaching program. We started working together last summer, and she helped me get my career mojo back big time.

Sarah asked tough questions, gave useful advice and showed up in person with the same compassionately frank tone of her book. Plus, btw, always with the cute blazers!

I’m now working on a full-time contract that checked all the boxes of what I was looking for. Bing!

And I’m unabashedly recommending her coaching program, online course and gorgeous Instagram feed to everyone I know, especially the mid-career moms who are going for amazing.

I also highly recommend Vermunt’s content for new grads and young people just launching their work lives. Her next book, Career Rookie: A get-it-together guide for grads, students and other newbies, is due out April 2019.

A great time for a careergasm

And did I mention there’s a labour shortage in 2019, ladies? Now is a great time to have a careergasm!

I’m excited Vermunt is writing a book for rookies, but a big part of the appeal of Careergasm is its multi-generational message. Vermunt espouses knowing yourself, being confident in your abilities and asking for a life that is truly amazing rather than just okay. These are useful truisms no matter your age or stage.

IMHO, the time is now for younger women, mature women and older women to get together to take over the world.

Why shouldn’t we be hard at work in jobs that allow us to contribute in some way to the betterment of life on earth? Why shouldn’t we have dream jobs. Why shouldn’t we get promoted? Why shouldn’t we start businesses, form partnerships, get funding?

The world needs more careergasms

Ladies, the world needs us, and there’s no reason.

And that’s why Vermunt’s message seems so right for these times. It’s a meeting place for wise women of all ages who want to do good work in the world.

Vermunt sums it up in the final essay of Careergasm:

“Wanna play?”

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